Deploying at Sedan - Blood and Iron, A Board Game About The Franco-Prussian War

Blood an Iron includes two battles: Fröschweiler and Sedan. Shown in this entry is the Battle of Sedan.

Something that I recall from reading The Franco Prussian War by Quintin Barry is the shallow defensive deployment of the French forces at Sedan.

The cover of the before mentioned book and the deployment of French forces at Sedan. Note the shallow deployment on the east flank.

Much of this deployment is due to the previous events in the war and the clear intention of the French to get a respite before withdrawing west. Nonetheless, while setting up the French forces in the board game it became too clear that the east flank was too long for the forces available.

The 12th Corps in their defensive positions around Bazeilles. Each infantry counter is a regiment and each hex is around 150 meters. Not enough troops to cover the long east flank!

The 7th Corps at Floing is stronger, but the deployment/command and control rules make it a bit difficult to spread out to the flanks. Luckily, the 5th Corps is deployed a kilometer south, towards Sedan.

When it comes to war games at this scale (Armies and Corps) I'm too accustomed to the computer ones, which most of the times feature the forces already deployed.

What I liked of this entry's short errand to cardboard wars is that deploying forces was almost a game within the game.